The number of times I give good, solid advice to a friend and they just straight up ignore it is ridiculous. Sometimes it’s not even my advice, but maybe even biblical advice that I’ve recently read in the bible. A really simple example could be when a friend asks how she looks, and I honestly and wholeheartedly think her hair is really cute, (even wishing my hair could look like that!) I then tell her that. Well for whatever reason, that person (nearly always) will reject my advice/encouragement. That friend may say, well I hate it, so I’m going to wash it. Even after they just spent an hour fixing their hair and after I tell them it really looks stunning, they decide it’s crap. Ouch. The amount of times my friends have done this to me hurts and honestly leaves me feeling like nobody ever listens to my opinion. Like why do I even bother anymore? They clearly don’t respect my opinion at all or me.
And then I stopped. It’s the same way with God. God constantly tells us, His children, that He loves us. He cares for us. He thinks we are pretty enough. He says it’s ok if we can’t play every instrument in the world, or the sport we wish we could be a pro at. He made us to be the way He wants us to be. He LOVES us, we are dear to Him. He created us, we are his artwork. And what do we do? Well I know countless times, especially as I look back at my lifelong struggle with self-esteem issues that I finally realized I needed to close the door on this summer, that I’ve done the same thing to God that these friends do to me. I tell God that His creation, His artwork is not good enough. In fact, I tell God that His artwork is straight up hideous. I tell God that His artwork is worthless. I tell God that because I’m not good at these things I want to be good at that I have no value… that His creation has no value. When I have a question and the answer I’ve been searching for is clear in a verse in the Bible, I tell God that I can find a better way to solve my problem than that. I tell the God of the whole entire universe that He’s just not that good at what He does. Ouch. How dare I? That doesn’t just go for me ever standing in front of a mirror and saying God could have done better, but also when I say anything bad about another person. I’m insulting that person, and thus God, because God created them.
So it’s just ridiculous (and hypocritical) of me to be offended and hurt that my friends don’t listen to me, when I don’t even listen to the only one who only ever gives perfect, true, and holy advice. That’s just kind of a ‘wow’ when I think about it.
